The Stress and Families Project was begun to discover ways in which mental health services can more effectively prevent and treat depression in women, and ways in which the children of depressed women can be helped. An intensive field study of low-income mothers and their childrend found that life stress was highly associated with the experience of depressive symptoms, and that maternal stress and maternal depressive symptoms took a toll on mother-child interactions. Also, children whose mothers reported many depressive symptoms reported greater unhappiness in the relationship with the mother.